Atlantic Equities downgrades Bank of America as net interest margins struggle
Atlantic Equities moved to the sidelines on Bank of America as the firm sees net interest margins weakening for banks.
Analyst John Heagerty downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight and lowered his price target by $5 to $40. The new target implies a 13.3% upside from where the stock closed Monday.
Heagerty said it will be difficult to have operating leverage as net interest income, which finds the difference between revenue from interest-bearing liabilities and the cost to the bank of servicing them, slows for Bank of America and other financial services names.
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— Alex Harring
Crude oil in January poised to decline for 7th month in 8
March West Texas Intermediate crude oil contracts fell as low as $76.55 per barrel Tuesday, the lowest in about three weeks, and leaving crude on the verge of declining for the seventh month in eight. Moreover, crude is on pace to settle below its 50-day moving average ($77.62), also for the first time in nearly three weeks.
WTI is also on course in January to decline for a third straight month.
The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) is off about 0.3% premarket Tuesday, on course for a third straight decline. Exxon (XOM) (earnings), SLB and Devon (DVN) are all down about 1% in early Tuesday trading.
Energy SPDR ETF in past 12 months
Month-to-date, the Energy ETF is still up about 1%, and on the verge of advancing for the third month in four.
— Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla
Contrarian indicators in the futures market have Wolfe Research getting bullish
There are contrarian indicators coming from the futures market that have Wolfe Research turning more positive on stocks. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 29% from the peak and now large speculators have flipped to their most aggressive short position in over two years, analyst Rob Ginsberg wrote in a note Monday.
“With the Fed on Wednesday and earnings from AAPL, AMZN and GOOGL<…….
